The Dragon Multinationals: case study of Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd.

Abstract

The focus of this dissertation is to explore Dragon multinationals. The economic globalization that for years has been only limited to the countries of the Triad, in the last 20 years had started to expand and also to spread to the countries of the Periphery. This expansion brings as a consequence the evolution of a new zoology of firms, the so-called latecomers or Dragon multinationals. Despite their lack of resources and knowledge compared to the traditional MNEs, they were able to compete on a global context and adapt to the new environment. The first part of the thesis focus on describing the traditional MNEs, their characteristics, their strategy, and their organizational structure. In the second part of the dissertation the attention shift to Dragon multinationals. They are defined as firms that are coming from Asia-Pacific area, which face an accelerated internationalization and that, thanks to their characteristics, innovative strategy, and organizational structure, have been able to overcome the initial disadvantage and to adapt better to new dynamics in the global context compared to traditional MNEs. The last part focuses on a case study about the company Kweichow Moutai Co., Ltd., the world’s leader in the Chinese Baijiu industry. The Kweichow Moutai Company represents an example of a successful Dragon multinational and it is used to demonstrate the theory explained in the previous theoretical section of this dissertation.